A typical example of such sufism was Shykh Nuruddin Mubarak Ghaznavi (died 1234-35 AD), a disciple of Shykh Shihabuddin Suhrawardi (1144-1234 AD), an… - Sita Ram Goel

What helped the Christian missions a good deal from the outside was the rise of Nehruvian Secularism as India’s state policy as well as a raging fashion among India’s intellectual elite. The knowledgeable among the missionaries were surprised and somewhat amused. They knew that Secularism had risen in the West as the deadliest enemy of Christian dogmas and that it had deprived the churches of their stranglehold on state power. In India, however, Secularism was providing a smokescreen behind which Christianity could steal a march.

Secularism per se is a doctrine which arose in the modem West as a revolt against the closed creed of Christianity. Its battle-cry was that the State should be freed from the stranglehold of the Church, and the citizen should be left to his own individual choice in matters of belief. And it met with great success in every Western democracy. Had India borrowed this doctrine from the modem West, it would have meant a rejection of the closed creeds of Islam and Christianity, and a promotion of the Sanatana Dharma family of faiths which have been naturally secularist in the modern Western sense. But what happened actually was that Secularism in India became the greatest protector of closed creeds which had come here in the company of foreign invaders, and kept tormenting the national society for several centuries. We should not, therefore, confuse India's Secularism with its namesake in the modern West. The Secularism which Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru propounded and which has prospered in post-independence India, is a new concoction and should be recognized as such. We need not bother about its various definitions as put forward by its pandits. We shall do better if we have a close look at its concrete achievements. Going by those achievements, one can conclude quite safely that Nehruvian Secularism is a magic formula for transmitting base metals into twenty-four carat gold. How else do we explain the fact of Islam becoming a religion, and that too a religion of tolerance, social equality, and human brotherhood; or the fact of Muslim rule in medieval India becoming an indigenous dispensation; or the fact of Muhammad bin Qasim becoming a liberator of the toiling masses in Sindh; or the fact of Mahmud Ghaznavi becoming the defreezer of productive wealth hoarded in Hindu temples; or the fact of Muhammad Ghuri becoming the harbinger of an urban revolution; or the fact of Muinuddin Chishti becoming the great Indian saint; or the fact of Amir Khusru becoming the pioneer of communal amity; or the fact of Alauddin Khilji becoming the first socialist in the annals of this country; or the fact of Akbar becoming the father of Indian nationalism; or the fact of Aurangzeb becoming the benefactor of Hindu temples; or the fact of Sirajuddaula, Mir Qasim, Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan, and Bahadur Shah Zafar becoming the heroes of India's freedom struggle against British imperialism or the fact of the Faraizis, the Wahabis, and the Moplahs becoming peasant revolutionaries and foremost freedom fighters? One has only to go to the original sources in order to understand the true character of Islam and its above-mentioned luminaries. And one can see immediately that their true character has nothing to do with that with which they have been invested in our school and college text-books. No deeper probe is needed for unraveling the mysteries of Nehruvian Secularism.

Frustrated on all sides, the missionaries advised their masters, the Pope and the king of Portugal, that the only way left for imposing Christianity firmly on Indian soil was the Rigour of Mercy to be employed wherever the Portuguese exercised absolute power over their subjects. This was a euphemism for the use of force for the spread of Christianity. The Pope agreed and the king of Portugal issued orders accordingly. Once again, it is a very well-documented story. Hundreds of Hindu temples in Portuguese possessions were demolished and churches were built out of the debris The lands and other incomes attached to temples were transferred to the churches. It was made a crime punishable with confiscation of property and imprisonment to make images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses or to worship them even in private homes. Hindus were prohibited to celebrate their religious and social ceremonies. Hindu sannyasins and yogis were forbidden to enter Portuguese territories. Brahmins were forced to attend church services compulsorily on Sundays. It was made increasingly difficult for Hindus to live in their ancestral homes by depriving them of the means of livelihood. Their places in trade and services were reserved for converts who were provided with many other incentives. Hindu laws of inheritance were altered so that a convert could claim a share of the parents” Properties during their life-time. Hindu Women who married Christians and got pouverted were offered rich dowries, Those who deserted their husbands for the new faith could get a share in the family Property. Every Hindu child whose father died was declared an orphan and taken away forcibly by the friars, Mothers and relatives refusing to part with the infants or hiding them away were severely punished. Hindus who removed their images to neighbouring Kingdoms or went to Worship them outside Portuguese Possessions Were liable to lose their civic tights and Properties. There were many other ways in which Hindus were humiliated and converts enabled to strut around as lords of all they surveyed. (p 62)